XLII
The Roman numeral 42.
XLII, a mark of value, indicating 42 nummi was used on the copper coins of the Vandals and Ostrogoths.
Vandals. AE 42 nummi (mark of value XLII). Photo courtesy of CNG (67, 1829) Ostrogoths. Theoderic c. AD 493-526, AE 40 nummi (mark of value XL). Photo courtesy of Gert Boersema.
The same mark of value, XLII for 42 nummi, countermarked (using a hammer and chisel) on Roman imperial asses and dupondii, is usually attributed to the Ostrogoths, but it may also have been applied by the Vandals in North Africa. Most of these marks are found on 1st Century asses and dupondii, usually of Nero, Galba and the Flavians. Old sestertii in this series were countermarked LXXXIII for 83 nummi. Cambridge has a good collection of these countermarked coins, 2 sestertii and 25 middle bronzes, all published and illustrated in MEC I, pp. 424 - 427.
The function of these peculiar marks of value – 83 being almost, but not exactly two times 42 – was first deduced by Philip Grierson. He recognized that the newly created denominations were divisions of a silver unit valued at 500 nummi. 42 and 83 are the closest whole numbers one can get to a twelfth (exactly 41⅔) and a sixth (exactly 83⅓) of 500.
See Countermarked in Late Antiquity.
DICTIONARY OF ROMAN COINS
  | Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate. XLII, as a mark of value, on the copper coins of the Vandals, without the name of the king. (Sabatier, Mon. Byz. vol i p 221; Keary Num. Chron. |
View whole page from the |Dictionary Of Roman Coins|
XLII
The Roman numeral 42.
XLII, a mark of value, indicating 42 nummi was used on the copper coins of the Vandals and Ostrogoths.
Vandals. AE 42 nummi (mark of value XLII). Photo courtesy of CNG (67, 1829) Ostrogoths. Theoderic c. AD 493-526, AE 40 nummi (mark of value XL). Photo courtesy of Gert Boersema.
The same mark of value, XLII for 42 nummi, countermarked (using a hammer and chisel) on Roman imperial asses and dupondii, is usually attributed to the Ostrogoths, but it may also have been applied by the Vandals in North Africa. Most of these marks are found on 1st Century asses and dupondii, usually of Nero, Galba and the Flavians. Old sestertii in this series were countermarked LXXXIII for 83 nummi. Cambridge has a good collection of these countermarked coins, 2 sestertii and 25 middle bronzes, all published and illustrated in MEC I, pp. 424 - 427.
The function of these peculiar marks of value – 83 being almost, but not exactly two times 42 – was first deduced by Philip Grierson. He recognized that the newly created denominations were divisions of a silver unit valued at 500 nummi. 42 and 83 are the closest whole numbers one can get to a twelfth (exactly 41⅔) and a sixth (exactly 83⅓) of 500.
See Countermarked in Late Antiquity.
DICTIONARY OF ROMAN COINS
| Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate. XLII, as a mark of value, on the copper coins of the Vandals, without the name of the king. (Sabatier, Mon. Byz. vol i p 221; Keary Num. Chron. |
View whole page from the |Dictionary Of Roman Coins|